Four Athletics – Fitness Gear Handcrafted in USA

Americans wore 80% American made products in 1980. Today, that number has decreased to only 2%. So it’s no secret that the majority of apparel is being made overseas. However, Four Athletic’s mission is to re-humanize the retail experience while bringing manufacturing and jobs back to the U.S. “I wanted to expand on this a little to give you insight as to why we decided to start a company and why we do things a little differently. We love people. We love good people to be more specific. The four founders of Four Athletics are good people – Self identified of course,” says Co-Founder, Casey Thompson. “So we wanted to create something that would allow us to work together – next to other good people. We wanted to create something that had a purpose and changed something for the better.” Four Athletics is a combination of passion, experience, and creative desire to change one of the oldest industries in the world.

“We took a look over the last 10 years and saw that there has been a transition from people buying from large companies because they were faster, more convenient, and told them they were always right to people buying from brands they know personally, from people they respect, that are telling a story of why they exist (hopefully for a common good). People went from drinking Budweiser, buying coffee from Starbucks, and shopping at Wal-Mart to drinking local micro brews, standing in line for 10 minutes to get a slow drip coffee from Blue Bottle, and buying food from farmers markets and clothing from responsible brands.”

“Four Athletics and its business model allows us to make what our customers want, with the best fabrics we can find, match supply and demand 100% of the time, and deliver incredible prices – all while being made right here in the good ol USA. There is a growing demand for fitness gear as more Americans consider the health benefits of exercise.”

Four Athletics produces quality active wear built to perform in and out of the gym. They noticed that premium active wear has become overpriced and lower quality than in the past and decided to do something about it. Today, there are barely any American Made options for active wear, but Four Athletics wants to change that. They design every piece of clothing with form, fit and quality in mind. By going American made, they ensure the highest quality, most durable active wear.

Four Athletics also has an effective retail model: crowdfunding. By using crowdfunding, they can match up supply and demand to only use the necessary materials. This way, Four Athletics eliminates waste, cuts out the middleman, and can make the highest quality active wear at the most affordable prices. We are not spending tons of money on marketing campaigns trying to get people to buy what we have already made. We simply ask them what they want, they tell us, and we make it. We want people to feel like they are buying their clothes from their friends – because we want to be friends with them. We want to build a community of good people not just a brand.

What is the ambassador program?

“The ambassador program is about finding good people who align with our values and want to be a part of Four Athletics and what we are trying to do in the industry. People can apply to become an ambassador and if they are accepted they receive a big discount on their welcome kit and then they have a discount code that they can use themselves and share with their friends. All that we ask is that they share their excitement for Four Athletics on social media once a month. We have ambassadors that have thousands of followers and we have ambassadors who have 80. We are more interested in who you are and what you care about.”

“This is a brief overview of the whole process. We design a single sample product and test the heck out of it to make sure it holds up to the most vigorous workouts and is both comfortable and functional. We put a campaign up on our site to ‘crowdfund’ that new product. Generally the campaign is live on our site for 15-17days. As soon as the product reaches 100% funded, we order the materials and go into production. (We have already calculated what it would take from a minimum product quantity and fabric order that it would take for each campaign to be successful and you can view the progress for each style on the progress bar). We order a few extra in each size and continue selling the item on our site during the production process. Typically it takes about 5 weeks from the time a product reaches 100% until we ship it out to our supporters.”

Where is the company located?

“It is operated out of Glendora, CA in the Top of a gym that two of the founders own. We are 2 sets of brothers. I have a twin brother named Cody Thompson and then there is Ben Magnone and Matt Magnone. It is really fun.”

Is your goal to create more U.S jobs as the fitness industry grows in America?

“Our goal is to revolutionize the retail industry for the better! Make great products, at fair prices, and do it all right here in the USA. We hope to create jobs and friendships and meet as many good people as possible.”